Before Jim Hall designed and built innovative race cars with advanced features like adjustable aerodynamics, molded composite chassis and downforce-generating ducted fans, he was a race car driver. At the time, winning consistently in sports car racing generally required driving cars with European pedigrees, but Hall grew tired of buying last year’s models at next year’s prices from European vendors. When former Scarab constructors Dick Troutman and Tom Barnes approached Hall about building an all-new American sports racer in November of 1960, the cornerstone of Chaparral Cars was set, and the Chaparral 1 was born. Next January, one of two Jim Hall Chaparral 1 team cars will cross the block in Scottsdale, Arizona, available to the public for the first time since 2004.

Hall provided input into the design of the new car, which Troutman and Barnes had planned to name the Riverside Sports Racer until Hall’s $16,500 investment changed the name to Chaparral. Loosely based on the design of Lance Reventlow’s Scarab Mk. II sports racer, the Chaparral 1 used the same front engine, rear-drive layout as the Scarab Mk. II but tipped the scales at roughly 300 pounds less than its predecessor. The car’s suspension was upgraded as well, with the de Dion tube rear suspension used in the Scarab replaced by a fully independent rear suspension. Girling AR disc brakes were used in all four corners, and Halibrand supplied eight-inch-wide wheels for the rear and six-inch wheels for the front.

Power came from a 283-cu.in. Chevrolet V-8, stroked and bored by Traco Engineering to 318 cubic inches and initially fed by a trio of Stromberg carburetors. Hall soon realized that six carburetors would still produce good reliability while boosting output to a more reasonable 375 horsepower, sent through a Borg-Warner T-10 Corvette transmission. Unlike Hall’s later cars, there was little science behind the shape of the Chaparral 1′s bodywork; penned by Chuck Pelly (who had designed the Scarab’s bodywork), it was continually modified to allow for better air intake and cooling.

A total of five Chaparral 1s were built, including the prototype (which used an 88-inch wheelbase) and four production models (stretched to 90 inches to give the driver more legroom). Jim Hall took delivery of the prototype (officially, chassis 1-001) and the third car built, chassis 1-003, which will cross the stage in Scottsdale next January. On chassis 1-003′s first outing, at Sebring in March of 1962, drivers Hap Sharp, Jim Hall, Ronnie Hissom and Chuck Daigh brought the car home to a sixth place overall finish, but managed to take a class win. The car posted a victory at a Road America 500 mile event that same season, but only made one more appearance (at Sebring in 1963, where the car failed to finish) as a Jim Hall team car.

Hall’s initial plan for the Chaparral 1 was to build the car as a mid-engine design, but the lack of a transaxle robust enough to handle the power of the Chevrolet V-8 forced the change to a more conventional front engine, rear-drive layout. As the 1963 season unfolded, it became readily apparent to Hall that mid-engine cars were the wave of the future, and work was underway on a new Chaparral model, to be developed and built in-house. As the Chaparral 1 was no longer competitive, Hall sold both team cars and turned his attention to the development of the Chaparral 2A.

Chassis 1-003 was then purchased by Gary Wilson, who campaigned the car through the 1964 season. Its next owner was Joe Starkey, who used it to rack up a class win and an event win at SCCA outings in 1965. The car then passed through a series of owners who occasionally campaigned it in vintage events, and in 2001, chassis 1-003, which had undergone a 10-year restoration from 1987 to 1997, was purchased by Skip Barber. At Road America in 2002, Jim Hall was reunited with his former race car; when onlookers joked about the difficulty the six-foot, four-inch Hall was having in extricating himself from the car, he reportedly quipped, “I guess I was a lot more bendy 40 years ago.”

In August of 2004, RM Auctions offered chassis 1-003 for sale in Monterey, California, where it sold for a price of $1,111,000. Next January, RM Auctions expects the car to realize a selling price between $2,250,000 and $2,750,000 when it crosses the block in Scottsdale. For details on RM’s Scottdale sale, visit RMAuctions.com.

Norm, Dan is taking a well-deserved vacation, so you’ll see more of me than usual over the next few days. I’ve got a few pieces queued up from other Hemmings editors as well, so it won’t be the all-Kurt show.

Thanks Kurt. I wonder if any of the TRACO stuff is left on the engine. I’ve been gathering up data Travers and Coon for the past 10 years and their handy work from the 60′s is very hard to come by any more.

It tickles me that even though Hall placed 1st and 2nd in points for the 1965 USRRC season in his redoubtable Chaparrals, George Follmer snatched the crown in his diminutive Lotus 23 into which he had snuggled a 2l Porsche engine. Consistency was the key to which the reliable German engine contributed along with its good power. Follmer picked up the points to place 3rd overall, but because he was the clear winner in the under 2l class, he collected all the glory from the Texan from Midland. Man, was he peeved. Hall was something of a Colin Chapman-type, but from Texas. I believe Chapman used some of the ideas tried by Hall as he evolved his formidable Chaparrals. Ground effects are a mainstay of racing technology today. Neither invented it, but both made practical use of a sound concept with spectacular results.

Let’s not forget his “mystery transmission” – an automatic seemingly more efficient than the sticks of the day, and whose mechanicals were very closely guarded. A plus was that it enabled Jim to accelerate with his right foot and brake with his left, giving him juuuust a little quicker response time underfoot.
If it hasn’t been done already, you need a good writeup of this automotive genius, who affected the sport on so many levels.

…..biggest “mystery” is that nobody else back then jumped on the “automatic” bandwagon and further developed it for sports car racing …….I don’t think it was outright banned by the FIA, like Hall’s revolutionary movable wing and “sucker fans”……..took another 40 years before the semi-automatics went prime time, now the conventional manual+clutch is getting hard to find……….dammit!

Hmmm…the only authentic period Chaparral NOT in the display at the Petroleum Museum in Midland, Texas…
The Museum does have the various Chaparral 2s in a room of their own, with a ‘garage diorama’ for non-Chaparrals to sit in nearby.

Good posting, Kurt. What a mean looking racer! I was unaware of how tough those powerglides could be made until I have been reading several comments and noting that many drag cars ran them in the past. A guy I used to know in L.A. had a ’50 Chevy convertible with a slightly hopped up Jimmy “270″ in it with a powerglide but it was the first of the PGs and that 270 destroyed it in a few thousand rather careful miles. He finally replaced it with a hydramatic. GM and individuals soon learned how to build them “tough”, it appears….

I realize I’m late to the party. Just wanted to add that Gary Wilson was my former wife’s cousin. Being Gary was from Kansas and we were from Minnesota I never got to know him well. I do remember the two days when Gary came up to BIR (Brainerd) back in the mid 60′s and invited us up to watch him race in the CanAm series. The night before the race I watched him work out quick change ratios for Brainerd track and then got to be in the pits with him during the race next day. Memory is foggy but I think he had a DNF when something broke. I’m sure he was then running one of those (ugly) CanAm cars. I’m sure they filled a nitch at the time but always didn’t like the looks. Nothing like this beauty. I’d appreciate any memories anyone has of Gary. He passed away a few years ago from cancer.
Chuck Adelsman chuck.adelsman@gmail.com